Five weeks after the initial injury, Nuggets center JaVale McGee is in a similar place to where he started – on a bone stimulator along with other rehab, doing upper body work… and waiting.

The stress fracture in his left tibia is healing, but there is no end in sight from his absence from the team at the moment. McGee says he’s scheduled for another x-ray in the next week or so to determine how much it has healed, but until then he’s not been able to do much.

McGee says he cannot tell if the tibia feels appreciably better because “I’m not using it.”

To this point, McGee says frustration has not set in.

“I’m just glad there was a reason why I was playing mediocre, I guess” he said. “So that’s cool.”

J.J. Hickson has started at center for the Nuggets since McGee was sidelined, 16 games, and has averaged 12.1 points and 8.5 rebounds, shooting 51.9 percent from the field. The Nuggets are 12-4 since McGee went down.